Theatre Production - Mary Goes First

The highly respectable town of Warkinstall was in a ferment. A state of war existed between the two leading families merely because one lady had referred to another as an "impropriety." Mary Whichello was one of the best-hearted persons in the world. But Lady Bodsworth, whose husband had just secured a knighthood, got on her nerves. Moreover, her ladyship's rank secured her precedence in the social functions of the town, and she was taken in to dinner by the head of the house.

Lady Bodsworth was a little more than plump and had false hair and aggressively-painted face. She took her newly acquired dignity very seriously, and when, listening behind the curtains, she heard Mrs. Whichello, referring to her personal appearance, declare that "with her powdered cheeks and yellow hair she looked like an impropriety," that dignity was outraged.

An apology was demanded by Lady Bodsworth, and her husband seconded the demand with all the pomposity that a bloated town magnate could command. Mary said she was sorry, but that was not enough; the apology must be in black and white, and Sir Thomas commissioned his solicitor to draw up the document in full legal form. Mary flatly refused to sign it, and brought dictionaries to bear witness that the word simply meant "unseemliness."

Lawsuits were threatened, and Mary bid her opponents do their worst. Not so her easygoing, peace-loving husband, a leather merchant, who had long since succumbed to the lure of the links. Sending Mary into an adjoining room, where he begged her cousin Felix to keep her quiet for a few minutes, he sought to effect a compromise. He invited Bodsworth and his solicitor out to dinner at the club, but they declined with virtuous indignation. Then he went so far as to offer to withdraw his opposition to Sir Thomas over the question of tramways on the local council if he would keep the case out of court.

PRESS REVIEW

(Daily Mail [London, UK] - 19th September, 1913)
"MARY GOES FIRST"
MR. HENRY ARTHUR JONES'S POLITICAL BURLESQUE

The new four-act piece by Mr. Henry Arthur Jones called '"Mary Goes First," which was produced at the Playhouse last night, begins as a comedy of bad manners, but rapidly develops into a burlesque of local politics.

The author deserves credit, indeed, for having attacked a difficult, not to say desperate, task. For those who have no strong convictions of their own object to the most impartial chaff of party, from a wish to spare the feelings of others. And, what is worse still, most people nowadays not actively engaged in politics are bored by them.

The trouble in this case arises through a knighthood being conferred on the Conservative Thomas Dodsworth, Mayor of Warkinstall, ostensibly for presenting a sanatorium to the town. His wife naturally goes into dinner before Mrs. Whichello, a leader of local society, who has hitherto been accorded precedence. But this scarcely justifies that lady - the Mary of the title - in saying behind the broad back of Lady Dodswortb, who is an expansive and artificial blonde, that she looks like "an impropriety."

The whole action takes place in the drawing-room at the house of Felix Galpin, a budding solicitor, with niether fixed principles nor clients. And as it has only one door we might suppose that no one would ever overhear anything. But unfortunately there is a convenient room adjoining which people are repeatedly invited to "step into." So Lady Dodsworth overhears the innuendo, and repeats it to her husband, who feels bound to demand a written apology. This Mary, who is as full of spirit as she is wanting in tact, refuses to give.

EATANSWILL POLITICS

Then, as often happens, when fools fall out, the lawyers come by their own and Galpin gets his first case. The other side is represented by the octegenarian Tadman, groundlessly called an old fox by the sharp-tongued Mary. Sir Thomas is, of course ready enough to compromise if met in the proper spirit, and Mr. Whichello, who also is a Tory magnate, is only too anxious to settle the threatened action.

But a Nabath's vineyard coveted by the local golf club parts them effectively, whereupon Whichello at Mary's suggestion agrees to "go the whole hog." He will stand as a Liberal at the forthcoming election and will support his claims to a baronetcy. We now plunge into Eatanswill politics at full blast.

In the midst of this Mary receives a command to appear in court - in the shape of a writ. And poor Whichello, heckled about Sunday golf, throws up the sponge, in spite even of Mary's tears. But here again Galpin gets his chance by running in the rich man's place for Parliament.

When next we see him he has been an M.P. for two years and has married Mary's pretty sister Ella, while the faint-hearted Whichello, by means not disclosed, has obtained his baronetcy. But this makes the dinner Galpin is giving that night more impossible than the lasi one. Lady Dodsworth, no longer a blonde, arrives in a flood of tears at not having been invited to a garden party by "the dear countess." And though chastened she is by no means resigned to the new baronet's wife going first. Mary, however, for once exhibits tact and leads the poor woman in to dinner herself.

GOOD ALL-ROUND ACTING,

The piece, which was favourably received and provoked a good deal of laughter, has many bright lines and many genuinely funny situations. But it does not obtain any real hold on the audience. It was admirably acted all round. Miss Marie Tempest, though not perhaps at her best, made the sharp-tongued Mary an amusing personage. Miss Margaret Brühling looked delightfully girlish as Ella, and Miss Hamley Clifford gave a lifelike study of a common type as Lady Dodsworth.

Mr. W. Graham Browne as Galpin, and Mr. George Shelton as Tadman, were excellent as representatives of the new and old school of solicitor. Mr. Charles V. France made one feel for the sufferings of that golf enthusiast Whichello, and Mr. Kenyon Musgrave was sufficiently pompous as Dodsworth, while Mr. Herbert Ross contributed a clever sketch of a fashionable physician, who had nothing to do except neglect his practice.

G. M.

Mary, on the other hand, was eager for the fray. Whichello's cries of distress had little effect on her, and she went on playing bridge serenely. She briefed her friend Felix, a struggling barrister, to act as her legal adviser, threatening to withhold her consent to his engagement with her ward Ella if he failed to get the better of the Bodsworths. Meanwhile, the young couple in their simplicity marvelled how such things could be.

Mary was likewise determined to make an assault on Lady Bodsworth's social supremacy, and went about it in a novel way. Sir Thomas had secured his knighthood through giving a sanatorium to the town; Whichello should give a crematorium and stand for Parliament, in order that a baronetcy in the family long since allowed to lapse might be revived. Whichello was not enthusiastic over the proposal. So long as he got his golf it was a matter of supreme indifference to him who "went first" in Warkinstall. He gave way to his wife's persuasions, however, and though he was in favour of tariff reform provided the leather trade got a look in, he consented to turn Radical in order to win the seat from the Government, and thus gain the baronetcy.

He made feeble speeches and won the contempt of a colleague a very Boanerges of an orator, and was ignominiously denounced as a deserter in the local papers. The consequence was that he refused to be "Boanerged" into Parliament, and threw up his candidature. Coaxing, entreaties, and tears were all in vain; he resolutely declined to change his decision. It is the first recorded instance of the wheedling of woman failing to achieve its purpose, but Whichello remained firm.

What did Mary do? Did she accept defeat and settle down to a secondary position in society? By no means. She simply handed over the Parliamentary responsibilities to her friend, Felix Galpin, who accepted them with alacrity, and made her husband contribute a sum of money to the Party sufficiently large to secure him the baronetcy. There was some haggling over the proposal, for a merchant and his money are not easily parted, but he gave way eventually, and Whichello's smile when he was told that he might go off and play golf till after the election was beautiful to behold.

Lady Bodsworth had by this time begun to show the white feather, and after an attempt by her wily solicitor to exact a much modified form of apology from Mary, which met with no success. Lady Bodsworth definitely threw up the sponge. Mary's triumph was now complete, but the victor did not press her advantage. The enemy, having capitulated, at first feigned indisposition in order not to face her opponent, and when they did meet there was a profusion of tears from the vanquished. All ended well, however, for when dinner was announced Lady Whichello gave her arm to Lady Bodsworth, and they went in together. Peace was proclaimed, and the whole assembly, from the butler to the baronet, rejoiced.

The foundations of the story are laid in the following extract from Fettleworth's "Credentials of Merit" (1764) (Chapter on Titles) with which the author prefaces his play. "Thus it appears that the Honours and Dignities adjudged by the State serve often but to varnish the Stratagems and Pletences whereby they have been obtained; and the Claim to Precedency is shown to be the Claim of those who have no other Claim to our Admiration and Esteem."

A merry Christmas and a very happy New Year is the sincere wish of the writer to all readers of these columns in all parts of the world. Furthermore she does hope that a plethora of pretty frocks, frills and furbelows may be the portion of all devotees of La Mode, as there is nothing which makes members of the weaker sex more at peace with the world. As every one knows, Miss Marie Tempest is endowed with the unique gift of wearing her raiment. It places her attire on a plane alone, and all women of understanding endeavour to emulate her in this respect. Never has she been seen in more beautiful toilettes than those on which her choice has alighted in "Mary Goes First," at the Playhouse. She first appears in a dinner dress of black mousseline velvet. The draperies of the skilt are carried up to a point on the corsage, caught with a pastel-shaded flat velvet rose just below the bust, the scheme completed with a black osprey springing from a diamond tube.

Standing out with special prominence is the afternoon dress worn by this talented actress in the second act. It is fashioned of Gobelin blue velvet, the skirt being of the pannier persuasion; the salient feature is the wide belt of gold tinsel and blue embroidery. The corsage is of chiffon relieved with a large pink rose, the foliage being of an almost magenta nuance. A few words must be said en passant regarding the 1830 mantle which accompanies it, carried out in old gold brocade, its charm enhanced with embroidery in which gold, peacock blue and tarragona red divide honours. Neither must it be forgotten that it is bordered with sable and lined with Gobelin blue chiffon, and that a white tuile Medici collar is also in evidence. Dust-coloured ostrich plumes are requisitioned for the adornment of the charming toque, as well as black moire ribbon.

Certainly no one could contest the charm of the dress worn by Miss Tempest when she interviews the lawyers. It is of mole-coloured accordion-pleated charmeuse. The tunic is hemmed with skunk, the corsage being of ninon. The most pronounced characteristic of this gown is the Polarian sash of pomegranate crepe de Chine draped round the waist and over the hips. A cute little coatee of charmeuse edged with fur is seen in alliance with this, lined with pomegranate-coloured crepe de Chine, the picture completed with a muff to match and a velvet toque embellished with an osprey. Last, but by no means least charming of the gowns is the one seen in the epilogue. It is an evening dress of oyster-white poplin pattermed with gold, while falling from the shoulders is a drapery of cream lace of which the sleeves are likewise fashioned.

It will be recalled that Miss Margaret Bruhling is the debutante of the piece, and very charming she looks in her gowns. Perhaps the most effective of all is the one of Virginia creeper red velvet relieved with fur, although it must be confessed that the evening dress of charmeuse of a Devonshire cream shade is equally becoming to her. It is supplemented with a gold lace tunic and pale blue sash. Her dinner dress is a study in rich malmaison shades.